


The Door Opens

by RogueBelle



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Death Eaters, First War with Voldemort, Gen, House of Black, POV First Person, Pre-Canon, Wordcount: 500-1.000, first wizarding war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-26
Updated: 2013-04-26
Packaged: 2017-12-09 14:29:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/775262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RogueBelle/pseuds/RogueBelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A meeting which will shape the future for the brightest-burning star of the House of Black.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Door Opens

Lucius had never treated me so well in his life. You'd think he had been _trying_ to arouse my suspicions. There wasn't a trace of irony in his bow, and his face was so utterly without hint of a sneer that I almost didn't recognise him. He put me on his elbow -- acting more the gentleman than he is, and treating me more the lady than I know he thinks I am -- and told me my presence was requested upstairs.

And refused to say more.

I find Malfoy Manor an unforgivably cold place. The unmelting ice sculptures, the crystal chandeliers, white and silver everywhere... It does not speak to me of warmth, or passion, and it discomfits me to be surrounded by so much sterility. It is a very _Malfoy_ sort of thing, and I...

Well, I am _not_ a Malfoy.

Perhaps Lucius meant his circuitous route through the chilling place to unsettle me. He ought to have known better, really. It certainly wasn't about to make me any more pliable.

Really, he needn't have bothered. Still, it nettles me to think he would have attempted such a juvenile intimidation technique.

To be plunged into sudden darkness felt like a relief. The room he brought me to was a small receiving chamber, with all the curtains drawn, and only a single lamp, giving off a faint green light. My breath hitched in my throat, for no reason I could immediately identify. There was a _presence_ , something mysterious but captivating, something pulling at the strings on my soul.

"My Lord," Lucius said, making an elaborate obeisance to no-one I could see. "I brought the girl, as you requested."

Before I could object to being called "the girl", someone stepped out of the darkness.

It would do Him injustice to say 'a man stepped out of the darkness'. I knew, from that first second, that this was no mere man. This was a lord, a master, with eyes so fierce and burning, so mesmerising, that I felt an inexplicable urge to fall to my knees under their scrutiny.

He approached, the susurrus of obsidian robes whispering like a serpent's hiss. I managed not to embarrass myself with a stumble, but sank into a curtsy deeper and far more sincere than I had ever before yielded, letting my skirts pool around me in a spill of amaranth silk.

"Do you know why you're here?" I shook my head; it felt heavy and limp. "Lucius told me... that you are outspoken and passionate... quite eloquent, really, in support of our cause... He says you show all the pride of your house, the proper attitude for a young woman of such exquisitely pure blood. That you do not hold with traitors. That your loyalty is fierce, and your rage even more formidable."

Lucius very consciously didn't shift next to me. In retrospect, I would have been astonished if Lucius had couched his description in such complimentary terms. But in that moment, Lucius barely existed. There was nothing, no one else in the world, nothing to divert my attention from the magnetic aura of the one to whom I would sign over my destiny.

"So tell me," said the Dark Lord, lifting my chin with long, white fingers. "Would you like the opportunity to do more than talk?"

Yes.

Oh, yes.

_'There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.' -- Graham Greene_

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this work, please check out [my blog](http://cassmorriswrites.com)! I also write original fiction, and my debut novel will be out January 2018.


End file.
